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Posted on 03/23/2003 12:00:08 AM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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On July 1, 1898, American forces engaged in a fierce battle with the Spaniards at El Caney and San Juan Hill in Cuba. After the skirmishes, they occupied the high ground overlooking Santiago. On July 3, Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete ordered his squadron to leave the harbor. The Spaniards attempted to escape toward the west along the coast. Then a running battle took place. All the Spanish ships either burned or sank. From there, American troops invaded and captured Puerto Rico, another Spanish possession.  1st North Dakota Infantry San Isidro, Luzon, Philippine Islands -- May 6, 1899 In October 1898, representatives of Spain and the United States met in Paris to draft a peace treaty. One of the vital issues to be discussed was the status of the Philippines. Spain wanted the United States to return the Philippines to Spain because Manila had been occupied by the Americans only after the armistice had been signed on August 12, 1898, but to no avail. The United States insisted on obtaining the Philippines. On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris, was signed in Paris, France, by both Spain and the United States. It formally ended the war between them. Under this treaty, Spain recognized the independence of Cuba; ceded Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the United States; and received a $20 million payment from the United States for giving up the Philippines. The treaty had to be ratified by the U.S. Senate before it could take effect. It, however, met opposition, mainly against the annexation of the Philippines. An Anti-Imperialist League was formed to rally American public opinion against the annexation. Some prominent Americans, such as former President Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, and Mark Twain, also opposed the ratification. One of the reasons why the United States should not acquire the Philippines was that the Filipinos themselves were fighting the Americans in the Philippines. Such an act, they said, showed that the Filipinos did not want to be under American rule. They also reasoned that it was inconsistent for the United States to disclaim—through the so-called Teller Amendment—any intention of annexing Cuba and then annex the other Spanish colonies, such as the Philippines. There were also many in the United States who saw the advantages of taking over the Philippines. Many missionaries, for instance, favored annexation. So did people who feared that Germany might get the Philippines if the United States did not. Some favored annexation to give America a “foothold” in the populous markets of Asia.  On February 6, 1899, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 57 to 27, ratified the Treaty of Paris. The American people, in effect, also endorsed the treaty when they reelected President McKinley in the 1900 U.S. presidential elections. Thus, the Philippines formally came under the rule of the United States. The Filipinos had become suspicious of the true motives of the United States in going to the Philippines. In fact, they were prevented by the Americans from entering Manila after its fall. Their suspicions were confirmed by the Treaty of Paris under which Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. Neither Spain nor the United States gave Felipe Agoncillo, Aguinaldo’s special envoy, a chance to present the wishes of the Filipinos in the Paris peace talks. Suspicion turned to hostility, and war between the two sides became inevitable. The Filipinos were outraged when they learned that Spain, which no longer controlled the Philippines, had ceded the country to the United States. On December 21, 1898, President William Mckinley announced his decision to keep the Philippines as an American colonial possession. Entitled “Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation,” the McKinley proclamation was announced in the Philippines on January 4, 1899. It stated clearly the intention of the United States to stay permanently in the Philippines. The mission of the United States was described by McKinley as one of “benevolent assimilation.” In the same proclamation, General Elwell Otis was named the commander of American ground forces in the Philippines, which was to “extend by force American sovereignty over this country.”  On January 5, 1899, Aguinaldo issued a counter-proclamation. He warned that his government was prepared to fight any American attempt to forcibly take over the country. This sounded like a declaration of war to the American military although Aguinaldo had no wish to get into a war with the United States. He knew that war would only cause untold suffering to the Filipino people. He was still hopeful that the situation could be saved by peaceful negotiations between him and the American military leaders in the Philippines. Aguinaldo wrote General Elwell S. Otis calling for peaceful negotiations. On January 9, 1899, Otis appointed three American officers to meet with three Filipino military officials appointed by Aguinaldo. However, they didn't accomplish anything. The tension between the Americans and the Filipinos was so great that it was easy to precipitate a war. On the night of February 4, 1899, as described in Aguinaldo: A Narrative of Filipino Ambitions, (E. Wildman 1901, Norwood Press, Norwood, MA) an American sentry, Private William W. Grayson, with another soldier, encountered three armed Filipinos on a bridge in San Juan del Monte near Manila. Recalling the incident, Grayson said: About eight o’clock, Miller and I were cautiously pacing our district. We came to a fence and were trying to see what the Filipinos were up to. Suddenly, near at hand, on our left, there was a low but unmistakable Filipino outpost signal whistle. It was immediately answered by a similar whistle about twenty-five yards to the right. Then a red lantern flashed a signal from blockhouse number 7. We had never seen such a sign used before. In a moment, something rose up slowly in front of us. It was a Filipino. I yelled “Halt!” and made it pretty loud, for I was accustomed to challenging the officer of the guard in approved military style. I challenged him with another loud “halt!” Then he shouted “halto!” to me. Well, I thought the best thing to do was to shoot him. He dropped. If I didn’t kill him, I guess he died of fright. Two Filipinos sprang out of the gateway about 15 feet from us. I called “halt!” and Miller fired and dropped one. I saw that another was left. Well, I think I got my second Filipino that time.... The Filipino troops fired back at the American lines and before the night was over, fighting had broken out between Filipino and American forces. Most of the Filipino commanders at that time were attending a dance in Malolos, Bulacan Province. When told of the outbreak of hostilities, they rushed back to their units, which were already shooting it out with American troops. When war finally came, Aguinaldo still tried to stop it by sending an emissary to General Otis to appeal for an end to the fighting. But Otis responded, “fighting, having begun, must go on to the grim end.”  The American people, however, received a different version of how the war started. Newspaper reports made it appear that the Filipinos had started the fighting. This was the time when the Treaty of Paris was pending ratification in the U.S. Senate. Previously, because of strong public opinion against the U.S. annexation of the Philippines, ratification of the treaty was uncertain. But the distorted news that reached the United States, specifically that the Filipinos were the ones who started hostilities, changed the minds of several U.S. senators to vote for ratification. On February 6, 1899, the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris. Philippine Insurrection? Ouuuccccch. The Americans viewed the fighting as an insurrection, not a war. Hence, Americans refer to this episode as the Philippine Insurrection, not the Philippine-American War. The Spanish-American conflict that lasted only three months, is referred to as the Spanish-American War. But the Philippine-American conflict officially lasted three years and is known only as the Philippine Insurrection by America. Actually the fighting between American and the remaining armed groups of Filipinos, whom Americans branded as “bandits,” lasted 16 years (1899-1914). James Loewen, a Washington, D.C.,-based scholar and author of a forthcoming book titled Lies Across the Landscape: What Our Historical Markers and Monuments Get Wrong, said, “What we call the Philippine Insurrection should be called the Philippine War. We had never conquered the Philippines, so you can’t call it a revolt.” Loewen’s comment was mentioned in an article published in the Star Tribune in Minnesota, in its issue of November 15, 1997. After the refusal of General Otis to end hostilities following the San Juan bridge incident, General Arthur MacArthur ordered the advance of American troops toward Filipino positions in Manila and the suburbs. Regiments from Kansas and California captured Santa Ana and Makati. Troops from Nebraska and Utah occupied the San Juan Bridge. On the other hand, volunteers from Idaho and Washington massacred hundreds of Filipinos who were then trying to cross the Pasig River. The coastlines were pounded continuously by Admiral Dewey’s naval guns. Capturing Manila and the Suburbs. Several American soldiers who took part in the battles in Manila and the suburbs wrote letters telling about those battles to their relatives in the United States. These letters were published in local and national press in the United States by the Anti-Imperialist League in 1899 in the United States.  From Manila, wrote Private Fred B. Hinchman, Company A, United States Engineers: At 1:30 o’clock, the general gave me a memorandum with regard to sending out a Tennessee battalion to the line. He tersely put it that “they were looking for a fight.” At Puente Colgante (suspension bridge) I met one of our company, who told me that the Fourteenth and Washingtons were driving all before them, and taking no prisoners. This is now our rule of procedure for cause. After delivering my message I had not walked a block when I heard shots down the street. Hurrying forward, I found a group of four men taking pot-shots across the river, into a bamboo thicket, at about 1,200 yards.... Narrating his exploits in Santa Ana, Manila, Captain Albert Otis, wrote: I have six horses and three carriages in my yard, and enough small plunger for a family of six. The house I had at Santa Ana had five pianos. I couldn’t take them, so I put a big grand piano out of a second-story window. You can guess its finish. Everything is pretty quiet about here now. I expect we will not be kept here very long now. Give my love to all.
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Take up the White Man's burden! Have done with childish days-- The lightly-proffered laurel, The easy ungrudged praise: Comes now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years, Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers.
This thing we do in Iraq will be very hard. That is the hyperbole of this post.
We will prevail. Justice will triumph.
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